Digital Commons Network^™

Racial Disparities In The United States Criminal Justice System: “With Liberty And Justice For All?”, Remi Alapo, David Rockefeller

Publications and Research

Racial discrimination remains a prevalent issue in the contemporary U.S. despite efforts to promote equality. Many young African American and Hispanic males are easy target for law enforcement agents. Minorities experience a higher and more unfair form of racial discrimination, racial profiling, police brutality, unfair sentencing, and mass incarceration for offences which are the same or less than those committed by White males. The rate of incarceration in the United States is five to eight times higher than most developed countries, and Black males constitute the largest percentage of inmates in the U.S. prison system. Once arrested, Black Americans are …

Captives Of A New Alcatraz: The New York City Department Of Correction From 1954 To 1990, Jarrod Shanahan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) from 1954 to 1990—a period that began with an audacious program, led by progressive penologist and DOC Commissioner Anna M. Kross, to replace “custodial” prisoner warehousing with a rehabilitative model directed by civilian experts. As part of this plan the political legitimacy, executive strength, and most importantly, the institutional capacity of DOC were expanded, while the department’s plant facilities were increasingly concentrated on Rikers Island. The previously remote penal island was connected by bridge to mainland Queens amid plans for dazzling new jails and a university-affiliated research institute, to …

Perspectives On Crime And Justice: Selected Speeches, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

"The speeches in this volume are the record of a consummate policy artist operating from the remarkable platform that John Jay College of Criminal Justice was, and that [President Jeremy Travis] evolved it to be, during his tenure. "If you agree with me that the time for reform is now", Travis put to a conference hosted by the Ford Foundation in the context of bringing college education to prisons, "then the question is how to make the convincing argument, how to mobilize the political forces that will make this dream a reality". It is, I think, the defining passage in …

A Culture Change, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

Mass incarceration. In recent years it’s become clear that the size of America’s prison population is unsustainable – and isn’t needed to protect public safety.

In this remarkable bipartisan collaboration, the country’s most prominent public figures and experts join together to propose ideas for change. In these original essays, many authors speak out for the first time on the issue. The vast majority agree that reducing our incarcerated population is a priority. Marking a clear political shift on crime and punishment in America, these sentiments are a far cry from politicians racing to be the most punitive in the 1980s …